Dishwasher Detergent & Castile Soap

Update 5/24/13:
I'd hate for people to read this really long post, only to find out at the bottom that this dishwasher detergent recipe doesn't work (the castile soap is awesome though).  I also don't want to delete my less-than-successful attempts at things as if they never happened.  So, I have tried a new dishwasher detergent recipe, although unfortunately it hasn't worked out so well either.  If you're interested, you can find the recipe/process to my most recent attempt HERE.  Now, on to the original post:

Surprise!  I feel bad for not posting anything for a while, so this post is a two-for-one special!  I'll be discussing how to make liquid castile soap from a bar, and how to use your liquid castile soap in a recipe to make your own liquid dishwasher detergent!

If you have a membership to one of those discount wholesale stores, or if you don't use your dishwasher often, then dishwasher detergent isn't terribly expensive.  But if you're like us, you run your dishwasher A Lot.  We don't live in a region prone to droughts, and we pay the same price every other month for our water regardless of the amount we use (there is a ceiling for that deal, but we never hit it).  Also, because we almost exclusively eat home cooked meals now, the dishes pile up faster than they did when we ate out a lot.  So making our own dishwasher detergent just seemed like the next logical step in our cost saving efforts.  As a bonus, the recipe uses a lot of the same ingredients as the laundry detergent recipe we made a few weeks ago, so we already had a lot on hand.  Unfortunately (or so it seemed at first) the recipe I wanted to use requires liquid castile soap, which isn't exactly cheap.  I was concerned that the expense of the castile soap would undo any savings from making it at home rather than buying pre-made detergents.  Then I found this blog post about how to turn a bar of castile soap into a nice thick liquid castile soap.  It's super easy!  So first, I'll show you how I made the liquid castile soap, and then we'll move on to the dishwasher detergent recipe.

Liquid Castile Soap

The Supplies:
1 bar castile soap (I used Kirk's Original Coco Castile Soap, 4oz.)
Water
Measuring cup and/or a scale

The Process:
If you know the weight of your soap (it's usually on the label), then just multiply that times 4.  This is how much water you will need using the same weight units.  For example, my bar of soap was 4 oz., so I needed 16 oz. of water.  For those not familiar with imperial units, 1 cup of water is 8 oz., so I needed 2 cups of water.  If you don't have a measuring cup with weight units, and/or if you don't know the weight of your soap, just use your scale.

Combine your bar of soap and your water in a bag or bowl (I found a quart size plastic zip bag was perfect) and let it sit for five days.  If you use the bag, set it in a bowl just to support it and to catch any potential leaks.  If you use a bowl, ideally use one with a tightly fitting lid, or otherwise cover it with plastic wrap.  If you are impatient, like I am, you can chop your soap up into smaller pieces so that it will dissolve faster.  Just make sure you get all the little bits that break/slice off into the bag.  Feel free to stir or shake your soap and water mix once or twice a day, as you will want to check it to see if it is ready, and this will help it incorporate faster.

The Results:
After a few days, you'll have a nice thick liquid castile soap, for a fraction of the cost!  It has a nice slick, thick texture; it's thicker than most liquid castile soaps you buy at a store; you can water it down more if you like but it isn't needed. It also spreads and suds's well, traits often lacking from bar to liquid soap conversions. The price is also right! At my local grocery store, a bar of Kirk's castile soap was $2.29, versus 16 oz. of Dr. Wood's liquid castile soap for $10.99.  That's an $8.70 savings!  That kind of cost savings made all the difference in making dishwasher detergent!


Dishwasher Liquid

I really didn't want to try to make a powdered dishwasher detergent because we live in a humid region and I didn't want to deal with it clumping up.  Finding a liquid dishwasher detergent recipe was a bit more difficult than powdered, and the two main recipes I based mine off of were rather different from each together, so I decided to combine the two, along with some tips I remembered from reading about this a long time ago but unfortunately can't remember where.  If you'd like to see the two main recipes I drew inspiration from, you can view them here and here.

The Supplies:
10 cups water
6 cups white vinegar
1 ½ cups washing soda
1 cup borax
1/2 cup liquid castile soap
2 tablespoons Dawn dish-washing liquid (You can use whatever brand you                  like; I find Dawn does the best job cutting grease.  Using a scented                detergent is also a great way to add a scent if you want it.)
Container(s) to hold 1 gallon of dishwasher liquid

The Process:

In a large pot, bring the water to a boil.  Remove the water from heat and stir in washing soda, borax, liquid castile soap, and Dawn. Stir in Vinegar, then allow the mix to cool for 24 hours.  The detergent will “gel” up over next 24 hours.  Using a whisk, egg beater, or electric hand mixer, mix the detergent well, then pour into storage container(s).  I reused a dishwasher detergent bottle and a 2 liter soda bottle.

To Use:

Give the soap a good shake to re-incorporate all the ingredients, then use 1 tablespoon per load.

Cost Breakdown:

6 cups vinegar: $1.31
1 1/2 cups washing soda: $2.67
1 cup borax: $1
1/2 cup liquid castile soap: 57¢ 
Dawn: 20¢ 
Total: $5.75 for a gallon (256 loads worth) of dishwasher detergent.  Not bad at all!

The Results:
This detergent works great!  My dishes come out clean and sparkly, and with no residue like they sometimes had with store-bought dishwasher detergent.  It doesn't perform any miracles when it comes to baked-on stuff, but then neither does store bought detergent (at least from my experience).

Update 3/2/2013:
After having used this detergent for a few weeks, we have been seeing a white residue on many of our dishes.  After one load came out with a particular build up of this residue, I ran the rinse cycle again to see if it was an issue of needing to use less detergent (since dishes otherwise seemed "clean").  The extra rinse cycle didn't help, so next we ran a load with regular dishwasher detergent bought at a dollar store, but this didn't seem to help either. Tomorrow we are going to go buy a small bottle of the detergent we used to purchase and run the load again and see if the dishes come clean.  If not, I can't help but wonder if this is somehow a water quality issue, since the home made detergent seemed to work fine for a while.  I will update with our findings soon.

Update 3/8/13:
The store-bought detergent cleared up the residue, so it must be something about my detergent formula.  The  liquid castile soap is still awesome though. So, hey, at least part of the experiment turned out well!